Officials say NFL planned lockout

NEW YORK (AP) -- The NFL's on-field officials say the league planned to lock them out rather than negotiate a new contract.

Members of the NFL Referees Association were locked out June 3 after talks broke down. The league has been contacting replacement officials.

"Lockout seems to be their negotiating strategy with everyone," said referee Scott Green, president of the NFLRA, clearly referring to the lockout of the players in 2011. "We don't want to be locked out. We want to get back to the table and get this resolved."

But no talks are scheduled.

Green and past NFLRA president Ed Hochuli say the NFL is jeopardizing the safety of the players, as well as the integrity of the game, by considering using officials they feel are unqualified. None of those officials will come from the top college division because they are barred from accepting NFL jobs by the colleges, Green said Wednesday.

"To take seven officials who have not worked Division I (college) games or not worked the last several years," he said, "and to put them on the field has got to be pretty unsettling not only to the players and coaches, but to the fans."

Green said players know the current officials are consistent in their calls, but won't have any idea "what will be called or seen and what won't be, and that will be a product of how the game is being affected."

Added Hochuli: "There is no game if the competitive nature of the game is not being controlled" by officials.

Hochuli, perhaps the best-known NFL ref, said the 121 officials who are locked out are training on their own, including hours of video work and taking rules tests.

"When the lockout ends -- and we know it will end -- we'll be ready to take the field the next day," Hochuli said. "But just like the players, whose preseason helps get the mistakes out before the season starts, if there is no preseason (for the officials), there will be mistakes that will happen, just like with the players."

The officials say their wage offer was for a smaller increase than they received in the collective bargaining agreement that expired in May. They said it would cost each of the 32 teams $100,000 per year to meet that proposal.

They also cite as issues higher wages for officials in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball, and the loss of a pension system.